JPH0226599A - Dryer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To properly control a drying operation time by automatically discriminating the actual drying condition of an article to be dried and executing the completion of the operation. CONSTITUTION:The relative humidity of air to flow into a drying room 10 is lowered by a drying means 23. The room temperature of the drying room 10 is detected by a room temperature detecting means 28, and the temperature of an article 35 to be dried is detected by a dried article temperature detecting means 29. An operation control means 13 stops the operation of the drying means 23 when a temperature difference, in which a detected temperature by the dried article temperature detecting means 29 is subtracted from the detected temperature by the room temperature detecting means 28, is made into a reference value or below.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a drying device used, for example, to dry clothes after washing.

(Prior Art) As a conventional example of the above-mentioned drying apparatus, there can be mentioned, for example, a separate type air conditioner described in Japanese Utility Model Application Publication No. 6-2-45615. In this device, a simple drying room is formed by surrounding an outdoor unit placed outdoors with a curtain wall, etc., and the outdoor unit is configured to have a dehumidifying function for the air passing through it. There is. That is, two heat exchangers are installed in the outdoor unit, and during drying operation, the refrigerant from the compressor is circulated through the two heat exchangers, so that one acts as an evaporator and the other as a condenser. The air passing through them is dehumidified by first being cooled, and then the dehumidified air is heated to return it to the suction temperature and is blown out as dry air. By circulating this drying air into the drying chamber, washed clothes and the like that are hung in the drying chamber are dried.

(Problem to be solved by the invention) By the way, the drying operation time in the above-mentioned apparatus is usually
This is done by setting a timer by the user. For this reason, for example, the operation does not respond accurately to the amount of clothes to be dried, and in general, excessive time is set, causing the operation to continue even after the clothes have finished drying, resulting in excessive operating costs. Moreover, since a timer setting operation is required for each drying operation, there is a problem that sufficient user comfort cannot be obtained.

This invention has been made in view of the above, and its purpose is to provide a drying device that can more accurately control drying operation time, reduce operating costs, and improve user comfort. be.

(Means for Solving the Problems) Therefore, as shown in FIG. A room temperature detecting means 28 for detecting the temperature and a drying object temperature detecting means 29 for detecting the temperature of the drying object 35 disposed in the drying chamber 10 are provided, and after the drying means 23 starts operating, An operation control means 13 is provided which stops the operation when the temperature difference obtained by subtracting the temperature detected by the dried material temperature detection means 29 from the temperature detected by the room temperature detection means 28 becomes less than a reference value. .

(Function) In the drying apparatus described above, drying operation is performed while detecting the room temperature and the temperature of the object to be dried. At this time, the temperature of the material to be dried becomes lower than room temperature because the latent heat of evaporation is taken away when the water adhering to it evaporates, and approaches room temperature as drying progresses and the amount of evaporated water decreases. The temperature difference from the room temperature when the dry state is reached, which indicates a temperature change, is determined in advance as a reference value, and as described above, the drying operation is stopped when the detected temperature difference falls below this reference value. Thus, the operation is terminated based on the actual drying state of the material to be dried. As a result, there is no need for excessive operation, and there is no need for the user to set the timer, so operating costs can be reduced compared to conventional methods, and the operability and comfort of the user can be improved. I can do it.

(Example) Next, a specific example of the drying apparatus of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the overall configuration of a drying device according to the first embodiment of the present invention, which is also configured as a multifunctional heat pump system having an air conditioning function, a hot water supply heating function, and a bathtub hot water reheating function. It shows. In the figure, 1 is an outdoor unit, and a compressor, an outdoor heat exchanger, etc. are housed in this outdoor unit 1. A reheating unit 8 having an indoor unit 2.3.4, a hot water storage tank 5, and a bath heating heat exchanger 7 for heating hot water in the bathtub 6 is connected to the outdoor unit 1, respectively. Further, a drying unit 9 having a drying heat exchanger connected in series to the bath heating heat exchanger 7 is arranged on the ceiling of the bathroom. This drying unit 9 may be installed on the ceiling of a dressing room adjacent to a bathroom, and hereinafter, the room in which the drying unit 9 is arranged will be described as a drying room 10. This drying room 10
is appropriately provided with a drying rod (not shown) for hanging clothes so that it can also be used to dry wet clothes after washing. In other words, by using the bathroom or changing room, which is normally unused except for bathing, as a drying room for clothes, the living space can be used more effectively.

The compressor is operated by inverter frequency control with a compression capacity corresponding to the total load of each user-side heat exchanger. Further, a heat pump operation control device 11 that monitors the entire multifunctional heat pump system and circulates a refrigerant to each user-side device that requires operation is provided in the outdoor unit 1.

In the following, only the drying operation in which refrigerant is circulated through the drying unit 9 will be explained, but this is performed when the operation start switch on the drying operation operation remote control 12 connected to the drying unit 9 is turned on by the user. At times, the drying operation is started by sending a drying operation request signal from the drying operation control device (operation control means) 13 provided in the drying unit 9 to the heat pump operation control device 11, and the details thereof are as follows. I'll explain later.

Note that the reason why the drying heat exchanger is connected in series with the bath heating heat exchanger 7 as described above is based on the assumption that drying clothes in the drying room 10 and bathing are not performed at the same time. . That is, when there is no hot water in the bathtub 6 and no hot water is circulated through the reheating unit 8, no heat exchange occurs in the bath heating heat exchanger 7, and the refrigerant passes through this and is supplied to the drying heat exchanger.

On the other hand, when the circulation fan attached to the drying heat exchanger is stopped to allow the refrigerant to flow through the drying heat exchanger, the drying heat exchanger acts simply as a refrigerant pipe. Only one of the heating heat exchanger 7 and the drying heat exchanger can be selectively made to function as a condenser or an evaporator.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the structure of the drying unit 9. On the bottom surface of this drying unit 9, a suction port 21 is formed on the right side in the figure, and an air outlet 22 is formed on the left side. 23 are erected. Further, a circulation fan 24 made of a sirocco fan is arranged adjacent to this drying heat exchanger 23.
3 and the circulation fan 24 are entirely surrounded by a casing 25. By operating the circulation fan 24, the air in the drying chamber 10 passes through the drying heat exchanger 23 from the suction port 21, and then is blown out from the air outlet 22, and circulates between the drying chamber 10 and the drying unit 9. It is made to be. Further, a ventilation fan 26 is further provided on the side wall surface of the casing 25.
By operating the drying chamber 10, a part of the air in the drying chamber 10 is exhausted to the outdoors through an exhaust duct (not shown) through an opening formed in the side wall surface of the casing 25, and the ventilation in the drying chamber 10 is improved. It is made to be done. An electrical component chamber is provided at one end of the air outlet 22, and an electrical box 27 housing the drying operation control device 13 is disposed in this electrical component chamber.

On the inner wall surface of the casing 25 that communicates with the suction port 21,
Furthermore, a room temperature sensor (room temperature detection means) 28 made of a thermistor or the like for detecting the air temperature inside the drying chamber 10 is attached. On the other hand, at the tip of the signal line drawn out from the drying operation control device 13 in the electrical equipment box 27,
The above remote control 12 for operation and the clothing temperature sensor (drying material temperature detection means) 29 shown in FIGS. 4 and 5.
are connected to each other.

The clothing temperature sensor 29, as shown in FIG. A clip portion 32 and a fifth
Endothermic fins 33 made of aluminum plate as shown in the figure
The points are brazed.

For example, as shown in FIG. 6, this clothing temperature sensor 29 can be inserted into the pocket of washed wet clothing (things to be dried) 35 hung from a drying rod 34 in the drying room 10, or It is designed to be installed and used in a slow location.
The temperature detected at each attachment point is inputted to the drying operation control device 13 as the temperature of the object to be dried. In FIG. 6, reference numeral 36 denotes a holder for the clothing temperature sensor 29 when it is not in use, and is fixed to an appropriate location on the wall surface of the drying chamber 10.

The drying operation in the apparatus configured as described above is carried out by operating the circulation fan 24 and circulating the refrigerant discharged from the compressor of the outdoor unit 1 from the drying heat exchanger 23 to the outdoor heat exchanger. This is done by causing the heat exchanger 23 to function as a condenser, and using the heat of condensation to raise the air temperature in the drying chamber 10 to a set temperature. By simultaneously operating the ventilation fan 26 at this time, a portion of the heated air from within the drying chamber 10 is discharged from the drying chamber 10, and
Ventilation is performed in which the same amount of air as the amount of air that is discharged newly flows into the drying chamber IO. By heating the air flowing into the drying chamber 10 to the set temperature in this way, the relative humidity in this air is reduced, while the air containing a large amount of evaporated moisture from the clothes 35 is sequentially discharged outdoors. By doing so, clothes etc. are dried.

In the above embodiment, in order to perform the drying operation more economically, the drying operation control bag W13 is provided with an automatic stop control function according to the detected values from the room temperature sensor 28 and the clothing temperature sensor 29. The following control will be described with reference to the control flowchart shown in FIG.

When the drying operation switch of the drying operation remote control 12 is turned on by the user, the operation mode selected by the user with the remote control 12 is first read in step S1. The remote controller 12 is provided with a switch for switching between a timer mode and an automatic mode, and in the automatic mode, it is possible to select between a normal course and an iron course.

The ironing course is based on the premise that the user irons the clothes after the drying operation is completed, and the operation is stopped when the clothes are slightly dry compared to the normal course. Therefore, in steps S2 and 83, the selected driving mode is determined, and in the case of the normal course, step S4
In, 3 deg is set to the operation stop judgment reference value D3,
In addition, in the case of the ironing course, in step S5,
After each of the Ds is set to 5 degrees, the drying operation described above is started (step S6). Next, step S7 is a step of waiting until the drying operation state becomes stable. For example, when 30 minutes have passed after the start of operation, the process moves to the next step S8. In this step, the temperature DB detected by the room temperature sensor 28 and the temperature WB detected by the clothing temperature sensor 29 are read, and in step S9, the temperature difference between the two (DB-WB) is compared with the above reference value Ds. . If the temperature is higher than Ds, the process returns to step S8, and therefore, the drying operation is continued while reading I)B and WB and comparing the temperature difference between the two with the reference value Ds. . And the above temperature difference (DB
-WB) is smaller than the reference value Ds, the process moves from step S9 to step SIO, and the drying operation ends.

FIG. 8 shows an example of actual measurement data of the time change between the detected room temperature DB and the detected clothing temperature -B during the drying operation, as shown in FIG. After the rising time, the temperature is controlled to be almost constant,
Clothes temperature WB does not follow changes in room temperature DB, but shows changes that gradually approach room temperature WB. This is clothing 35
This is to remove the latent heat of vaporization from the clothing 35 when the moisture adhering to it evaporates, and therefore, when the drying of the clothing 35 progresses and the amount of evaporated moisture decreases, a temperature change approaching the room temperature DB is shown. becomes. Therefore, as in the above control, the temperature difference from the room temperature when the dry state is reached is set to the reference value Ds.
By comparing this reference value Ds with the detected temperature difference, it is possible to automatically determine whether the clothing 35 has finished drying.

As a result of the above control, the operation is terminated based on the actual drying progress state of the clothes 35, so that excessive continuation of operation,
Alternatively, more accurate drying operation can be performed without stopping the operation due to insufficient drying. As a result, operating costs can be reduced compared to conventional systems, and user operability and user comfort can be improved. Further, in the above method, it is possible to finish the ironing course in a dry state according to the user's wishes, so that the comfort of use can be further improved. In addition, a humidity sensor is used to detect humidity changes in the air atmosphere in the drying room.
Although it is possible to automatically determine the dry state by this, in this case, accurate determination can be made when the amount of clothing is small.
For example, the internal electrolyte is likely to be eluted by condensed water, resulting in a decrease in detection accuracy.Therefore, there are many restrictions on installation locations and handling.Compared to this configuration, the above configuration is easier to handle. At the same time, it is less likely to cause a decrease in accuracy and can be constructed at a lower cost.

In the flowchart of FIG. 7, when the user selects the timer operation, the process moves from step S2 to step Sll to start the drying operation, and then in step S12 it is determined whether the set time on the timer has elapsed. When this happens, the process moves to step SL3 and the drying operation is stopped.

Next, an apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention will be described.

This device has an infrared radiation thermometer built into the drying unit 9 as a clothing temperature sensor 29, and the air outlet 22 of the drying unit 9 is equipped with an autolouver that can automatically change the blowing direction. Unlike the first embodiment described above, the other configurations are the same as those of the first embodiment, so the same functional parts are given the same reference numerals and a description thereof will be omitted.

FIG. 9 shows a schematic diagram of the installation state of the drying unit 9 in the second embodiment, and as shown in the figure, an infrared radiation thermometer is installed in the electrical box 27 in the casing 25 of the drying unit 9. A temperature sensor 29 is installed inside, and a reflecting mirror 41 is placed on the measurement optical axis of this clothing temperature sensor 29.
is arranged so that the temperature of the clothes 35 suspended from the drying rod 34 in the drying room 10 can be detected by the clothes temperature sensor 29. Further, as shown in FIG. 10, when a large number of clothes 35...35 are hung on the drying rod 34, by moving the reflector 41, the measurement location can be automatically scanned along the drying rod 34. This is what is being done.

On the other hand, a louver motor 42 for changing the air outlet angle of the louver of the air outlet 22 is provided inside the air outlet 22 as shown in FIG. As shown in the figure, the air blown from the drying unit 9 can be changed along the drying rod 34.

Regarding the drying operation in the apparatus of the second embodiment having the above configuration, the control in the automatic operation mode will be explained below with reference to the control flowchart shown in FIG.

When the drying operation switch is turned on and the drying operation is started (step 521), in this case, as shown in step S22, the blowing direction from the drying unit 9 is controlled by the operation of the louver motor 42, as shown in step S22. A reciprocating operation is performed over the entire length. In this operating condition,
As in the first embodiment, after waiting for example 30 minutes until the drying operation state becomes stable (step 523),
The process moves to step S24. In this step, the room temperature DB detected by the room temperature sensor 28 is read, and the reflector 41 is moved to dry several pieces of clothing 35...3 along the drying rod 34.
The temperature -Bi of step 5 is measured by the clothing temperature sensor 29 and read.Next, in step 325, the blowing direction is fixed to face the direction in which the lowest temperature WBmin among the several clothing temperatures -Bi is detected. and step S26
, minimum clothing temperature -Bmi from the detected room temperature DB
The temperature difference obtained by subtracting n is compared with a reference value Ds (for example, 3 degrees). If it is greater than or equal to Ds, step S24 is performed.
The process returning to is repeated, and when it is detected that the temperature difference has become smaller than the reference value Ds, the process moves from step S26 to step S27, and the drying operation is ended.

In the above, even when a large number of clothes 35 are hung on the drying rod 34, and therefore, for example, there is a difference in the progress of drying between the ends and the center, the clothes that are drying slowly can be grasped and Since the operation is stopped after determining the end of the process, it is possible to prevent drying of clothes and to perform more accurate control over the drying of a large number of clothes. Further, as described above, by using a non-contact type temperature sensor, the user does not need to attach the sensor, resulting in excellent operability. Furthermore, as mentioned above, by installing a temperature sensor that can perform multi-point measurement and a function to change the blowing direction, the blowing air can be directed to the slow-drying clothes, thereby drying the clothes more evenly. This makes it possible to shorten the drying time.

Note that the above embodiments are not intended to limit the present invention, and various modifications can be made within the scope of the present invention. For example, in the above example, a heat exchanger for drying, which is a component of a heat pump system, is installed in the drying chamber 10. Although an example has been described in which air heated by the container 23 is blown out, the present invention can also be applied to, for example, a device that supplies dehumidified air to a drying chamber like a conventional device, or a device that is further equipped with a heating means such as an electric heater. can be applied.

(Effects of the Invention) As described above, in the drying apparatus of the present invention, the actual drying state of the material to be dried is automatically determined and the operation is terminated. Since the operation does not have to be stopped in a sufficient state, operating costs can be reduced compared to conventional systems, and the operability and comfort of use for the user can be improved.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a drying device of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the overall configuration of a first embodiment of the device constructed by applying this invention, and FIG. 3 is a diagram of a drying unit in the above device. A perspective view, FIGS. 4 and 5 are respectively a front view and a side view of the clothing temperature sensor in the above device, FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing the installation state of the clothing temperature sensor, and FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the drying process in the above device. An operation control flowchart, FIG. 8 is actual measurement data showing an example of temporal changes in room temperature and clothing temperature during the drying operation, and FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram showing the installation state of the drying unit in the second embodiment of the present invention. , FIG. 10 is a plan view of the inside of the drying chamber of the drying unit in the second embodiment, and FIG. 11 is a control flowchart in the automatic operation mode of the apparatus in the second embodiment. 10...Drying room, 13...Drying operation control device (operation control means), 23...Drying heat exchanger (drying means),
28... Room temperature sensor (room temperature detection means), 29... Clothes temperature sensor (drying object temperature detection means), 35... Clothes (drying object). Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure P Kei A Samurai (minutes) 1° Figure

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A drying means (23) for reducing the relative humidity of air flowing into the drying chamber (10), a room temperature detection means (28) for detecting the indoor temperature of the drying chamber (10), and a drying means (23) for reducing the relative humidity of the air flowing into the drying chamber (10);
10), and after the drying means (23) starts operating, the room temperature detection means (
From the detected temperature in step 28), the dried material temperature detection means (2
A drying device characterized in that it is provided with an operation control means (13) that stops the above-mentioned operation when the temperature difference obtained by subtracting the detected temperature in step 9) becomes below a reference value.